Renewing Colors
by IronicNarwhal
Summary: Twenty-Five facts about Mimi Marquez that the world at large doesn't know.


A/N: Copying off of the lovely ladies; **Elizabeth Odessky**, **Det. Flawless**, and **amaXdear**, I have written a series of twenty-five facts about our favorite cat scratch girl that the world doesn't know.

Disclaimer: Jonathon Larson owns the character and everything about her! This is simply me tuning into him telepathically and writing words he cannot speak!

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I.** Mimi spent the first nine years of her life in Puerto Rico. When she was six, her father was deemed an "unfit guardian" by the country and she was sent to live with her elderly grandmother for all of four months before the woman died of a massive stroke at the age of seventy-eight. Mimi was shipped around to various group homes for two years until her mother finally got word of her being taken away from her father and flew from New York to claim custody of her.

**II.** She got hooked on heroine durring her freshman year of high school. She'd been at a party when someone dragged her to a back room, and handed her a syringe. In her alcohol-addled haze, she was convinced to plunge it into her arm. That was also the night she got HIV, though she wouldn't discover it for nearly two years.

**III.** She met Angel when she was fourteen. The story of the skin-head was actually their second meeting. Their first took place at a coffee shop and lasted all of five minutes. Mimi was leaning against the counter, waiting to receive her coffee, and Angel walked in, ordered an iced mocha, and shot her a grin. Mimi thought he was flirting with her. In reality, Angel really liked her blouse. Mimi realized they went to the same school together and the rest was history.

**IV.** Mimi dropped out of school a month before graduation. Her boyfriend was going to New Jersey and she wanted to follow him. Said boyfriend only turned around and dumped her, leaving her heartbroken and practically homeless on the streets of an unfamiliar city. She hitchhiked back to New York, to find that her mother had changed the locks, effectively locking her daughter out of her life. Angel found her crying on the street in the pouring rain and carried her six blocks to his house, where she spent the next two days recovering from a cold with Angel's mother fussing over her like her own mother never had.

**V.** She confessed to Angel that she had HIV a week after she moved into her Alphabet City apartment. Angel had at first been incredibly angry at her that she'd kept it from him, but had softened after a minute and told her that he, too, was suffering from HIV. Then he'd told her to get dressed and literally dragged her to her first Life Support meeting.

**VI.** Mimi's birthday is the tenth of May; her birthstone is emerald. She has a pair of emerald earrings she's had for as long as she can remember. They came from her grandmother. When Roger died, she insisted on having them buried with him; they were the only significant thing she had to her name and to her, they signified the part of her that died with Roger.

**VII.** Mimi's first kiss was Angel. She was convinced he had a crush on her and cornered him in the cafeteria at lunch. The whole thing ended with a very offended Angel, an embarrassed Mimi, and a squished peanut butter sandwich.

**VIII.** Roger and Mark moved into the Avenue B building the same week as Mimi. Mimi thought they were a gay couple for three months until she saw Roger sneak April in late one night as she came home from her job at the Cat Scratch club. From that moment on, she promised herself; she _would _get Roger one way or another.

**IX.** She felt guilty about this when she found out about April's death a few weeks later.

**X.** Mark walked in on she and Roger having sex more times than Mimi liked to think about, and eventually, Mimi began draping her stockings over the door handle as a warning to the filmmaker to stay out.

**XI.** One morning, a few months after Roger's death, Mimi grabbed a pair of rusty kitchen sheers and hacked all but seven inches of her hair off. The physiatrist called it releasing anger on a physical object. Collins said it was way better than drinking or more heroine. Maureen had the best explanation: "She needed a change, god damnit! If I went out tomorrow and hacked off _my_ hair, would you think Joanne died?!"

**XII.** Mimi never expected to outlive her mother but she did. She got a letter in the mail – God knows how anyone got her location – saying her mother had died of breast cancer and that he funeral was the following Thursday. Mimi tore up the paper, shot up some heroine, and kept herself constantly high for the next three days to keep herself from feeling any pain whatsoever. It worked; when it was all over, she couldn't remember a good week of her life, and forgot all out her mother's funeral.

**XIII.** She got her job at the Cat Scratch club to pay the rent. This is where he met Benny, whom she gave two lap dances to and then ended up making out with him in the back ally. He seemed more trustworthy than a lot of the guys to came in there and she guessed that's what drew her to him. No matter what her friend said, she would always think Benny was a half-way decent guy.

**XIV.** When Angel died, he left Mimi all his clothes besides the ones he was buried in. She couldn't bear to wear the skirts and blouses for a very long time but when she felt sad or lonely (especially after Roger died) she would throw on his tee-shirt and sing herself a Spanish lullaby.

**XV.** Mimi was terrified of thunderstorms. Roger found out about this soon after they got together. In the middle of the night, something that felt like a soaking wet kitten crawled into bed beside him and nearly stopped his heart with shock. Mimi had climbed down the fire escape and into his and Mark's apartment in the middle of the night.

**XVI.** Roger figured out an ingenious plan to distract her. It involved candles and his guitar. Before Your Eyes, he would just hum to her. But Your Eyes quickly became a lullaby of sorts for her and he only had to sing it once or twice to have her out like a light, even in the worst storms.

**XVII.** As she lay dying in the hospital a year after Roger had passed, she had a simple vision of Roger with his arms open. She closed her eyes and willed herself to step into them. The sound of the flat line sent all the nurses running but it was too late; nothing could bring the young Latina back to life.

**XVIII.** She had a pregnancy scare a few weeks after Roger's death. She refused to be tested for several days, despite Maureen's attempts to drag her from the apartment, and was only stuck in a world full of having to raise Roger's child without Roger there. It turned out that her menstrual cycle had just been stunted by the shock and grief racking through her from loosing Roger and her period started back up again, right on schedule, the next month.

**XIX.** Mimi died at age 22.

**XX.** Mimi was allergic to hamsters. She didn't even know you could be allergic to hamsters until she had a horrible reaction to one of her friend in elementary school's pets.

**XXI.** Roger's dying wish was for Mimi to get clean and move on. She fulfilled the first part of his request for him, but couldn't bring herself to even attempt the second part. A small part of her knew Roger would forgive her, but she still felt guilty that she couldn't do that.

**XXII.** Mimi was anorexic for three years. She was down to ninety-five pounds and dropping when Angel found out and begged her to check into a rehab. She didn't but recovered by herself, though the heaviest she ever got was one-ten and that was when she was at her happiest; with Roger and recovering from the heroine abuse.

**XXIII.** Mimi lost her virginity at age fifteen. She was drunk and he was cute. She always wished she'd saved herself for someone who mattered; like Roger or even Benny. But with Roger, it was almost like her first time all over again and she almost began to think of it that way.

**XXIV.** Roger proposed to her, ringless in his and Mark's kitchenette one Saturday morning. She grabbed a piece of string and tied it around her finger and declared herself engaged. They rented a car and drove to Las Vegas, got married by Elvis, and got drunk on cheep champagne. For their honeymoon, Mark let them have the flat to themselves for the weekend and camped out at Maureen and Joanne's. It was only five months before Roger died, and it was the best week of her life. She wore the string until it fell off her finger. She cried for two days.

**XXV.** She was buried on September 27, 1993. Only two months later, Maureen was killed in a car accident and Joanne lasted not two years after her; they said it was a broken heart. Collins exceeded all expectations and lived a whole long seven years after Angel died. Mark now lives in a neighborhood of New York, with two children, a wife, and a baby girl on the way. He'd never told anyone who the people on the pictures in his wallet are. Pictures of a flamboyant brunet, up on a stage. A grinning African-American man, constantly attached at the hip to either a Hispanic man or a spicy Latin woman. A grudgingly grinning woman with proper clothes and kinky hair. And finally, a bouncing Latin brunette, always with a bleach-blonde man. Pictures couldn't talk, but if they could, these would have one hell of a story to tell. The memory of a family like no other preserved forever in time.

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I didn't really like the ending. It didn't seem right after talking about Mimi to go off in a tangent about the whole group but I really hope you liked it! If you would like to use any of these as a prompt, then great! Just please tell me in a PM and credit me (And **Elizabeth Odessky**, **Det. Flawless**, and **amaXdear**) and I would be honored! I love you all and thank you so much for reading my rambling!

-Lynn


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